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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man that needs no introduction but we do a unique one
00:01:49
every week anyway because it would just be weird not to he is the captain yeah but maybe I could stop coming out from
00:01:56
behind the curtain every week cuz that's getting a little weird it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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listening thanks for telling a [Music] friend this week we are featuring hop Solution by the amazing Craftsmen and
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women at Bell's Brewery Inc up in one of my favorite States Michigan garage grade
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dry finish this all provides very nice balance I want to give a quick shout out to Michigan Beer expert and writer Ben
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Darcy and hop solution was brought to us by these remarkably generous garage gems
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first up we have Laura and Little Rock Arkansas and a big we like your jip to Wendy and Vancouver next up a cheers to
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don't forget all of our old episodes are available on the very free very awesome
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Stitcher app all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab it share grab a beer let's
00:03:31
talk some true [Music] [Music] [Music] crime well investigators from multiple agencies spent all evening here at the
00:04:05
Home in Morenci where the boys were last scen on Thanksgiving evening they took evidence from the home there's also
00:04:11
concern tonight because of a posting on Facebook from the boy's Father John skelton's last Facebook post reads I
00:04:19
love my wife very much may God and Tanya forgive me a cryptic message that police
00:04:24
are now trying to decipher meanwhile FBI Michigan State Police and Morenci police brought out
00:04:30
the chopper and searched John skelton's home late into Saturday night skelton's house was the last place his three sons
00:04:37
were seen alive 5-year-old Tanner 7-year-old Alexander and 9-year-old Andrew have not been seen or heard from
00:04:44
since Thursday night anytime you have children this old that are not with a caring loved one I think you you have to
00:04:53
assume they're in some kind of Jeopardy everybody is is still like I said hoping
00:04:57
and praying and trying to remain positive so we're hoping that the community can
00:05:03
still stay with us and be positive and be there and be our support police say the three little boys disappeared after
00:05:09
a bizarre chain of events reported by their father Morenci police say John Skelton tried to kill himself in his
00:05:16
home on Friday but before doing so Skelton says he handed off the kids to a woman he met years ago on the side of
00:05:24
the road Skelton is telling investigators the woman Joanne Taylor had car trouble so he pulled over to
00:05:30
help her and has maintained contact with her over email skeleton says Joanne picked up the kids Friday morning at the
00:05:38
house before he attempted suicide police are not sure this story adds up up to this point we've not been able to locate
00:05:47
a Joanne Taylor or confirm that she even exists skeleton's neighbor said he recently lost his job
00:05:55
and separated from his wife but they didn't know his troubles had reached a boiling point if my husband was in the
00:06:01
yard uh they'd be over seeing what he was doing and helping and just seemed like a very normal family police say
00:06:09
they do appreciate the many tips they have received from the community so far though the whereabouts of little boys
00:06:15
are not [Music] known the key persons in this Cas are John Skelton his wife Tanya and their
00:06:32
three sons Andrew Alexander and Tanner the boys are young ages 9 7 and 5 and in late 2010 it's important to know that
00:06:42
the parents John and Tanya are living in separate residences and in the process of ending the marriage let's jump right
00:06:51
into the timeline of some of the key events in the second half of 2010 on Monday September 13th
00:07:00
2010 John says he's leaving for work but instead of going to work John Skelton takes the three boys out of school he
00:07:09
signs them out and drives them to Florida John's parents live in Jacksonville Florida Tanya finds out
00:07:17
about this this is because the school called her to say that they are confused about what's going on because Tanya
00:07:23
brought the kids to school that morning and she even dropped off medicine when dropping off the kids
00:07:30
they called because later JN shows up and checks the boys out telling the school that the family was going on
00:07:35
vacation to Florida John is weird about the whole thing when Tanya reaches out to him this
00:07:42
is just after noon that day and John and the kids are still in the area with the
00:07:48
attempt of going to Florida so they're not in Florida they're still in Michigan at this time he first says that they are
00:07:55
going to Florida for a 3 week vacation but he also adds that he will put the kids in school once he's down in Florida
00:08:04
so this doesn't sound much like a vacation to their mother Tanya Tanya calls an attorney and she finds out the
00:08:12
only way she can prevent JN from taking the kids to Florida is for her to file for a divorce and request emergency
00:08:21
custody of the children a judge signs papers granting custody to T but before JN could be serve the papers he catches
00:08:31
wind of what is going on and he orders the boys into his vehicle now he only gets the two oldest boys into his
00:08:39
vehicle and John then drives those two kids down to Florida leaving the youngest boy Tanner back in Michigan
00:08:46
with his mother the next day Jon has the boys call home to speak with their mother now after this phone call Tanya
00:08:53
jumps into action and she goes down to Florida and she gets the Jacksonville Sheriff's Department involved in this
00:09:00
whole situation they serve John a custody order then they have to meet with a judge this is down in Jacksonville this
00:09:10
judge orders John the boys and Tanya to return to Michigan and states that the two parents will have joint custody for
00:09:19
the drive home until they reach the Michigan State Line there the boys are to be in the custody of their mother per
00:09:27
the Michigan judges previous order this whole process from the time the boys were taken on Monday September 13th
00:09:35
until they get back to Michigan this takes a little over a week this was not a quick process this was not a quick
00:09:42
turnaround and the mother had to go to Great Lengths to make sure that her two oldest Sons were returned back to
00:09:48
Michigan well it's not the best foot to start a divorce on having these kind of battles yeah and this whole battle is
00:09:57
super weird because from both standpoints because you have Tanya who's kind of left there going what's going on
00:10:04
why is my soon Tobe ex-husband just taking the kids and going down to Florida right and John has parents there
00:10:13
so I mean he has family there so it's not super weird on that level but what is weird is that this was not like
00:10:20
talked about between the two of them I mean two two at Great Lengths we we do have JN at some point who suggests that
00:10:30
maybe the whole family should go move down to Florida and Tanya says you know I can't really do that right now I can't
00:10:38
do that mind you she's thinking that the marriage is ending why would the whole family you know pick up roots and go
00:10:45
down to Florida and the whole statement too of well we're going on a 3-we vacation but
00:10:53
while I'm down there because now mind you this is September right school starts around that time for these boys
00:11:00
so T's wondering what are you doing taking the kids out of school school just started you're taking them on a 3E
00:11:06
vacation that's like the guy that just signs up for a new job and then goes on vacation the second week after he
00:11:13
started working there it just doesn't make any sense MH you know asking why would you go on this 3-week vacation
00:11:19
yeah I'm sure the kids would have fun down there but he's like oh well while I'm down there I'll just sign him up for
00:11:25
school that doesn't seem like a vacation who signs up people for school once they
00:11:30
get to a new location sounds like you're moving yeah against her best wishes well
00:11:35
then on Tuesday November 23rd 2010 all three boys were living with their mother Tanya according to Tanya JN is still
00:11:44
trying to determine if they could get back together they are not living together but T believed it was in
00:11:51
everyone's best interest that even though she had full custody at this time of the boys that they should be allowed
00:11:58
to visit with their father Tanya was not really interested in getting the marriage back together but the boys
00:12:05
loved their father and she was not going to deny them seeing him or staying the night at his new place well it's kind of
00:12:13
his new place it's now him living at their old place without her right it's his new old place right so the way that
00:12:22
this works is Tanya goes and she has to live elsewhere because they're separating John at the family's home
00:12:30
with the three boys right now T is staying with the help of some friends it sounds like somebody was selling a house
00:12:38
or in the process of moving out regardless she's living at this house in the same neighborhood as John and it's
00:12:46
two blocks away they're close enough that you can see portions of each of the properties from the other property if
00:12:55
that makes sense well and this is good for them too because than they're close to their house yeah and it it's I
00:13:02
believe it's a rented house but that's the house they know and yeah like you said they know other kids in the
00:13:08
neighborhood this is a familiar place for them I mean divorce is tough on children and Tanya seems to be going
00:13:15
above and beyond and out of her way to make it easier on the children allowing them to see their father even though she
00:13:23
has the custody rights one you could walk to your other house you could walk to see your mom you could walk to see
00:13:29
your dad and also like I said with it getting off to such a rocky start maybe they said hey we got to do something
00:13:35
better you know for the kids well Tanya also does not fear at this time that John would attempt to leave to Florida
00:13:43
again with the kids as she believe it appeared that he had learned his lesson the first time and that he was obeying
00:13:50
the Michigan judges instructions plus Tanya was recommending to John counseling and he seemed to be open to
00:13:57
the idea remember it appears John had an interest in getting back together with Tanya Tanya wanted counseling both
00:14:05
couples counseling and family counseling and they were going to counseling sessions together previous to this day
00:14:14
Tanya has agreed to let John have the boys for the Thanksgiving Day holiday the next day November 24th
00:14:22
20110 the boys are at Tanya's parents' home that morning until JN can pick them up later that day around 5:00 p.m. John
00:14:31
picks up the three boys around the scheduled time from there they go to his home John would later say and mind you
00:14:38
it's a little confusing if he is referring to Wednesday or Thursday right but he says while the kids are with him
00:14:46
he cooked them one of their favorite meals fried chicken and baked them a cake then we have Thursday November 25th
00:14:55
Thanksgiving my favorite day of the year food football a good amount of Libations well some bubbly yeah Tanya
00:15:04
later states that on this day she is on the phone with JN and according to her JN is asking if there is any chance that
00:15:12
they could get back together Tanya is giving him the old I don't know probably not you know giving him that routine
00:15:21
Tanya can hear her three sons in the background while talking with John and says it sounds to her like the boys are
00:15:28
having a great time they're playing and such later Tanya would say she is not 100% certain that she spoke with JN on
00:15:36
this day on this Thursday she says there is a chance it was on Wednesday night but you know with the with the holidays
00:15:44
going on there's a lot going on here so it does sound to me that she feels stronger that the conversation took
00:15:53
place on this Thursday regardless of which day it actually was we do have a neighbor of John's this is the lady I
00:16:01
believe she lived across the street she tells police later that she saw all three boys playing outside that
00:16:07
afternoon most reports State this is around 5:00 p.m. on that Thursday November 25th Thanksgiving Day MH Friday
00:16:16
November 26th Black Friday one of my least favorite days Tanya per the arrangements made before Thanksgiving is
00:16:25
scheduled to pick the three boys up at John's place at 3 p.m. that morning however T and John Trade phone calls and
00:16:33
text the topic Tanya would like to pick the boys up earlier if possible she's asking if she could get them around noon
00:16:42
John says he would however they are not at his home Tanya says to John what are you talking about from my place I can
00:16:51
see your driveway and your van is parked in the driveway John says friends of his
00:16:57
came and picked him up and and the boys up and they were out having fun now please keep in mind as we go through
00:17:04
this this is T and John having multiple conversations that day because later that day he says the boys are still with
00:17:13
his friends MH that he John is home and his friend is scheduled to drop the kids
00:17:20
off at his place at 300 p.m. so they can be picked up by Tanya at 3 p.m. so now Tanya is asking well
00:17:29
can they just drop them off to me at my place you know I obviously live in the same neighborhood right unfortunately
00:17:37
regardless of all of these conversations they never agree to a time for Tanya to
00:17:42
pick up the boys in fact this is where it all falls apart the next time Tanya talks to John
00:17:50
he says I'm on my way to the hospital I think I broke my leg Tanya wants to know
00:17:56
where her sons are and how how is she going to get them back John says they are not with me they are still with my
00:18:04
friend and she is going to bring them back to my house he thinks tan wants to get in touch with this friend of John's
00:18:13
or at least for him to do so but he is saying he does not have his friend's phone number on him and he doesn't know
00:18:20
what will happen with the boys getting to Tanya this very obviously upsets the boy's mother and she calls her attorney
00:18:30
the attorney advises Tanya to wait until after the scheduled time wait until after 3:00 p.m. before you do anything
00:18:38
at 3:01 p.m. Tanya calls the police and reports her boys as missing so remember we said John was on
00:18:47
his way to the hospital this is because he called a friend to drive him there once at the hospital John checks himself
00:18:54
in seeking treatment for an ankle injury I've seen seen this reported as everything from a sprained ankle a
00:19:01
broken ankle it is first reported that Jon tried unsuccessfully to hang himself this
00:19:09
either in a hotel or in his home in the course of this he suffered the leg injury in the
00:19:16
process where are the three boys Andrew age nine Alexander age seven and Tanner age
00:19:24
five John says a friend of his Joanne Taylor was put in charge of returning the boys to Tanya's home Joanne of
00:19:34
course never arrives in fact apparently John knows little to nothing about this Joanne
00:19:40
person John was a truck driver by occupation according to John this is someone who he met when he came across
00:19:49
her and Joanne's husband when they were having vehicle trouble their vehicle broke down and he stopped and helped
00:19:57
them well well John and Joanne then became friends afterward and maintained their relationship via the Internet
00:20:07
Tanya does not believe John's story in fact she fears that her sons may be lying dead in John's home M the Morenci
00:20:16
police search the home and they do not find the boys what they do find is a home of broken and destroyed furniture
00:20:25
and household items we're talking broken glass glass smashed Furniture a mattress
00:20:31
cut and slashed with a knife right and it's not clear if the stuff was like smashed on that Wednesday and Thursday
00:20:37
or if it's been smashed for a while Friday night at 11:00 p.m. an amber alert goes out for the three missing
00:20:44
skeleton boys the following is an Amber Alert issued for the three sons of John and
00:20:58
Tanya Skelton of morenzi police are searching the neighborhood now the FBI is on the way an amber alert has been
00:21:06
issued for three young boys in lenaway County who are believed to be in extreme danger Andrew Ryan Skelton age n
00:21:16
Alexander William Skelton age s and Tanner Lucas Skelton age five were reportedly last seen Friday at 2:30 p.m.
00:21:26
with Joanne Taylor a woman who their father John Skelton met on the internet the suspect was to return the children
00:21:34
to their mother but the children have been missing since Taylor is believed to be a resident of either Jackson County
00:21:40
or Hillsdale County and drives a silver van police say the father of the three boys has been hospitalized following a
00:21:48
suicide attempt the missing children are all described as white males Andrew is 4' 1 in tall weighs 57 lbs and and has
00:21:58
brown eyes and hair Alexander is 3' 9 in tall weighs 45 lb has brown eyes and hair and has a scar on his hairline and
00:22:09
on his chin Tanner is 3' 6 in tall with blue eyes and blonde hair the Morenci Police Department is investigating and
00:22:19
was to hold a news conference today if you have any information regarding the three missing children the alleged
00:22:26
abductor or the Suspects vehicle please call 9911 the Morenci police department at
00:22:34
51745 2323 or lenaway County dispatch at 517 263 0524 at 13 a.m. early Saturday morning
00:22:46
the Morenci police chief contacted T she was asked to get to the police department as soon as possible to
00:22:53
discuss the situation this is because the local authorities want to try to get a handle on what was going on before the
00:23:00
feds came in as you heard in the Amber Alert they also stated that they contemplated even doing an amber alert
00:23:07
because that would set off everything you're going to have all these Searchers come in you're going to have FBI come in
00:23:14
with this help or hinder what they're trying to do well and we've seen this in plenty of other cases before where you
00:23:21
have to get certain information out to the public because you do need the Public's help especially when you're
00:23:27
looking for three missing persons possible abductor and you have a description of the abductor vehicle mhm
00:23:34
but then the problem with that is when you are racing for time when you feel like you are in a Race Against Time to
00:23:41
find these three missing children you run into the problem of could you be getting just frantic tips from the
00:23:48
public right tips that aren't valuable to the actual [Music] case this show is sponsored by better help do
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Angie [Music] that all right we're back cheers mates cheers to you Captain John's story John
00:25:55
Skelton story or stories regarding the location of the three boys m is a very difficult portion of this case yeah what
00:26:03
is not difficult but is scary is law enforcement worked to track Jon's cell phone and if his phone was moving at any
00:26:11
point during the times when the boys were in his care so here's the scary part on Friday so the same day that the
00:26:19
boys would later be reported missing early Friday morning we know John's phone was on the move at 4:29 a.m.
00:26:27
John's cell phone was approximately 3 mil from his home on Congress Street and moving at about 5:00 a.m. his phone is
00:26:36
near Holiday City Ohio and Pioneer Ohio so Holiday City is a tiny little town in
00:26:43
northwest Ohio near the Michigan Ohio state lines yeah Holiday City is about 7 or 8 miles south of Michigan and by
00:26:52
everything that's out there John traveled straight from his house to this area this is a place that he would have
00:26:59
drove through multiple times when he was a trucker yeah and if you check the approximate travel time on any
00:27:05
directions or Maps application M you get depending on the route it's about a 24 to 25 mile one-way trip that would take
00:27:14
about 30 to 32 minutes of travel time mhm which matching up perfectly with what the cell phone evidence shows 4:29
00:27:23
a.m. he is just about 3 mil from his house and then 31 minutes later his phone is in Holiday City Ohio then at
00:27:33
6:46 a.m. according to the evidence his cell phone is back at his house so what we have here is John assuming he is with
00:27:43
his phone he is in this holiday City location for 70 some minutes and with no reason to be there and then he returns
00:27:52
home where later we are told after several Communications with t he attempts to commit suicide fails injures
00:28:00
himself and calls a friend to take him to the hospital yeah your marriage is Fallen apart you don't have custody of
00:28:08
your children mhm well you have part-time custody of your children you lose your
00:28:13
job and then something happens over this Thanksgiving mhm and you go to a town in
00:28:20
Ohio that you're familiar with right but your story to the police is this person
00:28:27
that you know that you gave your kids to they met you they met you at your house
00:28:33
they picked them up from your house right this doesn't make a lot of sense at all well that's a big part of the
00:28:42
difficulty with his story and with this case so then the difficult thing becomes
00:28:47
when did he hand his children over to this woman and just how complicated is his story and could it possibly be true
00:28:56
well there was this report a possible sighting at this donut shop in s dusy Ohio of the Three Skeleton boys may
00:29:04
offer the first glimmer of hope that the brothers are still alive shop worker Sandy Jones says she thinks she saw
00:29:11
Tanner Alexander and Andrew in the store 3 days after Thanksgiving the two older
00:29:16
ones are really they didn't act like they wanted to come through that door when they first came in Sandy says the
00:29:20
three were with a woman that they looked tired and hungry the woman who was with
00:29:25
the boys even called Tanner by name they kind of huddled together the younger one
00:29:31
kind of looked up and was looking around he just didn't know what he wanted at first like he wanted everything and she
00:29:36
kept saying just pick out your donut Danner just pick out your dut that's how only reason I know his name and then it
00:29:41
was funny when I saw the newspaper I'm like that's too much of a coincidence Jones says she didn't know about the
00:29:46
story until she saw it in the paper after the holiday weekend she then told her coworker and I said Stephanie I said
00:29:52
these little boys I swear were in The Donut Shop the owner of the dnut shop is a former police officer after Jones and
00:29:58
the owner talked it over they filed this report but not until several days after
00:30:03
the sighting I thought I was going crazy so I waited and talked to him and he um
00:30:09
the owner Terry and he was like you know what they do look like them and we went
00:30:15
around about the name again and then we didn't know what to do because we didn't
00:30:18
have we didn't know the car or license plates and we didn't know if it could be any kind of help or not and the more we
00:30:25
thought about the more we like no we need to call because it it it it's a chance it could have been them as for
00:30:30
the woman Janes says she was disheveled she was about 5' 5 5' 6 um like I said she looked like she was in her 40s she
00:30:38
looked very very um tired hagger um she had dark scraggly hair that looked like had just been died so of course police
00:30:45
are working to confirm this tip the boy's Father John Skelton was caring for the boys when they went missing back on
00:30:51
Thanksgiving his extradition hearing is scheduled for December 14th Governor granholm is already exped
00:30:57
all right so I know you're all chuckling but grow up yes a a former police officer owns a doughnut
00:31:05
shop but grow up if you're laughing about that and you can't you can't hear it on the clip that portion of the clip
00:31:11
that we played but at the very tail end of that when he's done giving the report
00:31:17
and he's going to turn it back over to the um you know the people in the studio the the news Studio he says Joanne m
00:31:26
that's the news Anchor's name so kind of some ironic things inside that story itself so well let's just go over this
00:31:36
eyewitness account do is do we believe this at all well so it's interesting for a few different reasons right at one
00:31:45
it's a sighting of three boys MH at a doughnut shop this is the house of donuts in sanduski Ohio it's not
00:31:54
terribly far from Morenci Ohio it's it's about 100 miles east it's more East than
00:32:00
Southeast but it's technically Southeast and sandusk is right on lake eie so about a 100 miles away 3 days
00:32:10
after Thanksgiving or 3 days after they went missing I'm a little uncertain of that
00:32:15
point but of that portion but they're with a woman so there's some things that are lining up here to John's Story Three
00:32:24
Boys not two not one you know no other people reported with them not a little girl not a grown man not anybody else
00:32:33
three boys that this woman at the doughnut shop believes to be of the appropriate age of the missing children
00:32:41
with a disheveled looking woman who looks tired and the kids look tired as well tired and hungry yeah it seems more
00:32:48
believable to me because yes one they're with a woman but that she's saying one of the kids' names and that the person
00:32:55
behind the counter pick picked up on that yeah yeah and it must have I mean the three kids as well as the woman must
00:33:03
have stuck out like a sore thumb to this eyewitness because she's kind of recalling this after the fact she was
00:33:10
unaware at the time that there were missing people that could have been you know that or in the general area of
00:33:18
where this dut shop is 100 miles away not terribly far right but this is also one of the problems with the Amber Alert
00:33:24
is that you will get so many sightings mhm and that could be a bad thing because
00:33:30
when they should maybe be looking closer like this search to me doesn't make a lot of sense they're searching so much
00:33:37
of the hometown they're searching the the house but we have cell phone ping technology that puts him in in a whole
00:33:45
another state in a whole another area that's very rural and we lose track of his cell phone pings for about an hour
00:33:55
and 45 minutes mhm so the the phone either dies or gets turned off and we're in an area that there's Acres upon Acres
00:34:04
upon Acres this would be a perfect Dumping Ground if you're trying to hide bodies mhm well I I thought that we um
00:34:13
the downtime let's call it of the cell phone information or evidence right is closer to like 70 75 minutes um because
00:34:25
we we have to factor in the travel time that's involved on the way to this location and then on the return trip to
00:34:32
his home right so we have that cell phone moving as you say and and as we know the interesting thing here and you
00:34:41
and I I agree with you because on the surface it's like well why are they I mean they got hundreds of Searchers
00:34:46
looking at his neighborhood looking in the general vicinity of his home I mean we even have helicopters flying over and
00:34:54
they did uh thermal searches as well you know that's where they're going to be looking for any indication thermally of
00:35:02
where they could find these boys if they were being hid somewhere but I think what we can deduce from this information
00:35:09
that we have not knowing exactly what tactics police and Searchers are going to actually Implement mhm is the amber
00:35:19
alert and the phone call from the police chief to T to the boy's mother where we know the feds are coming in we know
00:35:29
the FBI is coming in so what I believe we have here is a couple of things let's not just limit ourselves to one search
00:35:37
area I believe the feds the FBI was brought in because we do have information that there's a possibility
00:35:44
that these kids were taken against their will be it with their father or or anyone
00:35:50
else and they were taken possibly across state lines from Michigan to Ohio right
00:35:56
therefore now we have an FBI situation kidnapping across state lines that's a double whammy for the FBI so you bring
00:36:04
them in and maybe they are the ones that are in charge of searching the area that
00:36:09
is across the state line where on the local level where you have local jurisdiction you can then police search
00:36:18
grid search the neighborhood of John Skelton well the area in Ohio it' probably be better if you just search by
00:36:26
helicopter and maybe some kind of um infrared yeah the thermal infrared s um the other
00:36:33
thing too to keep in mind here is as suspicious as the movements of his cell phone are because of how early in the
00:36:41
day that is that's doesn't seem to be typical routine he has no reason for being in that area right as suspicious
00:36:48
as it seems you also have a bunch of information saying well his cell phone was in the loc general area of his home
00:36:56
home for a much longer period of time when he had the children so you can't Overlook searching that immediate area
00:37:04
right well and then also it's not clear if he left with his vehicle or did he get into a somebody else's vehicle mhm
00:37:14
right there a situation where he says this lady came and picked him up from me oh by the way I went with him for a
00:37:20
while yeah and then she brought me back home but also around this point isn't this where he starts stating hey I
00:37:29
wanted to give them to this woman because my wife was abusing them well that's where I think we need to go
00:37:36
through his story a little bit as well as some background information on the skeleton family right because let's say
00:37:45
that sighting that we the clip that we just played and I got to I got to tell you Captain right hearing that I'm
00:37:53
hopeful that there there's information in that sighting that that eyewitness told us sounds more legitimate than most
00:38:01
gives me cause for Hope gives me cause to believe that her story is is spot on yeah makes me want donuts so if we are
00:38:10
to believe that this sighting is real and and and she was correct that she did see the three boys then we have to
00:38:17
believe Jon's story right his explanation regarding the whereabouts of the three boys and here's what I here's
00:38:27
what I will say to try to sum this up as best as I can having looked at this for
00:38:31
for a while now I don't feel like I can say that it's a changing story regarding Jon's
00:38:40
story in a sense that it contradicts his original story right but J's story to me
00:38:45
seems more to evolve rather than to change completely mhm so he first tells Tanya he gave the kids to a friend of
00:38:53
his named Joanne and she was in charge of driving the boys to T's home he gave them to Joanne because he was going to
00:39:01
commit suicide that's the first story then we hear John tells investigators he gave the boys to a foster care home an
00:39:09
underground foster care home because their mother Tanya was abusing the boys this is where we need the background
00:39:17
information on the skeleton family so this is both John's and Tanya's second marriages right they've both been
00:39:26
married for John and T they had their first child together after one year of marriage so Andrew is the oldest 9 years
00:39:35
old at the time of The Disappearance he's described as very smart and great in school he loves video and computer
00:39:43
games and is very competitive when playing he is very inquisitive and out of all the boys he is the most timid and
00:39:50
quiet then you have Alexander who was born just about 2 years after Andrew he was seven at the time of The
00:39:57
Disappearance Alexander is the Daredevil of the boys and he has a few stitches to
00:40:03
prove it he enjoys riding and jumping on his bike playing in the dirt starting water fights he's the one described as
00:40:11
quote always getting into trouble but they say when it comes down to it he is a lover and Alex loves cell phones
00:40:19
working or not real or fake he loves cell phones or the idea of a cell phone he often would play with a cell phone
00:40:27
that were no longer in service he enjoys charging them and using the camera feature Tanner is the little one the
00:40:35
littlest one and he was born just two years after Alexander and Tanner is by far the Storyteller of the three boys M
00:40:43
he has a great imagination gets that from his father he can tell the most far out stories or tell something that
00:40:50
really happened uh he will get you to believe it and then will tell you no it really didn't happen and he'll he'll
00:40:56
laugh at you right like he's pranking you yeah Tanner doesn't like tomatoes he will not eat anything if there are
00:41:03
tomatoes in it or around it including ketchup Tanner really looks up to all of his siblings he doesn't want to be left
00:41:11
behind so he is always trying to keep up and do what everyone else is doing now John and Tanya were married for 10 years
00:41:20
before this all went down John was married before and had a child Tanya speculates that JN may have freaked out
00:41:28
when it was likely that she and John were going to get a divorce and she was going to get custody of the kids she
00:41:35
cites that's what happened in his first marriage Tanya's story is more complicated M Tanya was married before
00:41:43
and had two daughters in that previous relationship these two daughters are very very close to T to this day but are
00:41:50
much older than her three boys Tanya's first marriage ended because of of criminal charges Tanya had some kind of
00:41:59
inappropriate actions and behavior with a 14-year-old boy when charged she plad guilty and she
00:42:07
did serve time in prison for this offense right and she is a registered sex offender in the state of Michigan
00:42:14
yeah according to everything I could find this is not something that t hid from John he knew about her background
00:42:24
before they got married he knew about it before they had children yeah so this is
00:42:29
why that doesn't you Ian it's good that she didn't hide that from him but at the
00:42:33
same time it's like that's that's a very odd situation and very gross situation well yeah yeah and you know
00:42:43
what's difficult for for me as I sit here in this garage chair after we've covered so many cases and and I've been
00:42:51
so hardcore of saying you know once a child molester always a child molester mhm and you know that that I may have
00:43:00
put myself in a difficult position when discussing this case because I feel like I feel like we should I feel like
00:43:10
we should give her credit for not being for not hiding this from him you know what I mean it it deserves some credit
00:43:17
because we have seen situations where well she has to register where she lives and stuff like that so he's going to
00:43:23
find out eventually anyway she might not be able to find out and it's one of those things where look I mean it's a
00:43:30
it's a crime against a child the the boy was 14 years old mm so that's that's awful yeah and but at the same time she
00:43:39
in this case she is a victim or possibly is a victim and so you don't want to have it come across as victim blamy
00:43:48
right well but ultimately this is why John tells law enforcement he gave the boys to someone else to raise either
00:43:55
because he fear losing them in the divorce or because he was planning to commit suicide and Tanya was abusing the
00:44:02
boys he didn't want them to live out the rest of their days with her right so now
00:44:08
John following his treatment for his injured leg he was sent to a facility for evaluation once released there he is
00:44:16
immediately taken into custody and held in jail because of the situation with the missing boys John's parents talk to
00:44:24
him and they believe his side of the story in fact at some point they say that John told them previously about
00:44:33
possible abuse in the household hence that's his reasoning for wanting to take the boys to Florida to set up a new life
00:44:40
there MH the police don't believe him they they publicly announce that they are unable to confirm that a Joanne
00:44:49
Taylor even exist at all well what we do know is his mother believes him the father believes him yes and his sister
00:44:56
believes him they believe that that John is telling the truth correct right and not only does the not only does law
00:45:04
enforcement come out and announce that we don't believe that he gave his sons to this Joanne Taylor person right we
00:45:12
can't confirm that she even exists the difficult thing about that for law enforcement is you you're kind of
00:45:19
sitting on a fence there right not so much in that statement but in the course of your investigation because you have
00:45:25
to be sitting there wondering well crap just because we can't confirm that this person exists
00:45:32
doesn't mean that his story is not true what if he gave them to someone claiming
00:45:37
to be Joanne Taylor right so the other thing though too that they announce is that they fear that Jon has done
00:45:45
something terrible terrible with the children they don't believe that the outcome they publicly State this they
00:45:51
don't believe that the outcome is going to be a good one meaning we should be looking for
00:45:57
bodies and of course they had good reason to yeah and I think the first part of that good reasoning behind that comes
00:46:07
from the cryptic Facebook post by John on that Wednesday on Wednesday November 24th that said may God and Tanya forgive
00:46:17
me well that doesn't sound promising does it right but you wonder if that is implying to towards the suicide that he
00:46:26
eventually is going to try to commit this yeah that's a good point that's a very good point because some religions
00:46:34
claim that you know taking your own life is a sin so maybe he's confessing his sin to his his God and and his wife well
00:46:43
and the other thing too is keep in mind if it was an asking for forgiveness because of the
00:46:51
suicide or the attempted suicide from every indication I could find it seems like John was still very
00:46:59
much in love with t during this time that he was yeah focused on trying to get the family back together or get his
00:47:07
marriage back together so you could be very right that it could be for asking for forgiveness for that act or I guess
00:47:16
in a sense it could be asking for forgiveness for giving the children away and then committing suicide right both
00:47:25
right so or yeah and and the thing too is you could love your wife but know that she is sick on some level and that
00:47:35
she's molesting the boys then you you don't want her to be around but that doesn't mean that doesn't mean he can
00:47:41
just shut off all the feelings that he had for her MH I mean I would I mean it would be seconds oh you're molesting
00:47:48
kids oh no feelings for you anymore you can die in rot in hell yeah so so may God and Tanya forgive me that was the
00:47:59
John skelton's Facebook message to the world two days before he unsuccessfully tried to hang himself it was also two
00:48:05
days before The Disappearance of his three children right again is he say is he also apologizing for him murdering
00:48:14
the children right I mean we didn't bring up that aspect well and that's what I think most people take it as that
00:48:22
that he's apologizing for murdering the children and that also trying to take his own life well and I think that's the
00:48:29
the common initial reaction that most would have I know that that's the the initial reaction I
00:48:36
had right now the other reason to believe that this outcome's not going to be a good one as law enforcement stated
00:48:44
is what they found on John's computer so the night before the boys disappeared now keep in mind at this time JN is
00:48:52
considered by law enforcement and by his own admiss to be the only adult in the home in his
00:48:59
home with the computer that we are going to talk about at the time of these two searches okay and this is not verbatim
00:49:09
but one search was something to the effect of how to break a neck or can you break someone's neck using your
00:49:19
hands another I mean that's dark as hell and again not very promising well but right but let me hold on I'm going to
00:49:29
play a little devil's advocate here yes sir the the night which we think was the
00:49:34
Wednesday or maybe it was the Thursday he claims that he made the boys's favorite dinner and that they got
00:49:41
fried chicken and he made a cake because it's going to be one of the boys' birthday soon and then they watched a
00:49:47
karate movie mhm kung fu kung fu well well they said karate movie so I was actually guessing
00:49:55
that they probably I watched Katey kid or something but think about this way you're watching Katey kid you're
00:50:01
watching some K fu movie you see a guy maybe break somebody's neck with some move and then you Google search it well
00:50:11
that's his explanation that's what John's explanation is when he's confronted with this information right
00:50:17
why would you look that up if you didn't do something terrible to these boys well
00:50:21
we were watching a karate movie or a kung fu movie what he failed to provide and I get I shouldn't fault him too much
00:50:28
for this but again I've never been in a room being questioned about a triple homicide that you're going to Adit on
00:50:35
air what he what he has what he fails to provide in his defense is the title of the movie that he claims they were
00:50:44
watching yeah but anybody that has kids knows that sometimes you throw on a movie or a movie's on TV and kids are
00:50:52
watching it they seem entertained and you're in the kitchen and cleaning dishes and you're not really part of the
00:50:58
movie watching Pro process right see what I'm saying so it's like then if you went oh well what were they watching
00:51:05
well I'm not really for sure cuz I wasn't really watching I was doing the dishes or I was cleaning the house or
00:51:10
whatever was going on well this seems like an awfully violent movie to be allowing your three children under the
00:51:16
age of 10 to watch oh come on what do you mean everybody watch you know you don't think that's a fair assessment of
00:51:23
the situation no I I mean i''d be like telling children they shouldn't watch WWE or something well but I'm I'm
00:51:31
stating we also don't know the title of the movie so if they're watching Karate Kid at the age of under 10 I'd say go go
00:51:38
for it yeah but it can't be Karate Kid and I'll tell you why because of what John says in his defense he says the
00:51:46
reason why that there was a search on his computer for the phrase how to break a neck or can you break someone's neck
00:51:53
using your hands the they're watching a karate type Kung Fu type movie right and in the movie
00:52:02
somebody breaks someone's neck just with their hands you know like what is that Steven Seagal vanam kind of move there
00:52:10
and he says that it was at the kids asking him or not believing that that was realistic what they were seeing on
00:52:19
TV you know oh you can't break somebody's neck with your bare hands or or dad can you actually do that and so
00:52:26
he says I Google searched it with the boys right to see if that was even a real thing which sounds like I I know Mr
00:52:34
Miyagi was pretty tough on those teenagers for beating up Daniel Son but I don't remember any necks being snapped
00:52:40
I think he twisted one of their necks I I believe he did and then again you're talking about kids under the age of 10
00:52:48
they're coming up they don't have to see something verbatim to come up with a question oh we saw this guy twist this
00:52:54
guy's neck hey did he break his neck I don't know can you break somebody's neck by twisting it right I don't know let's
00:53:00
ask Dad that's all I'm saying so we have no clue what the title is we don't have
00:53:06
a clue how violent it was but again I I wouldn't say that Katey kid for example would be like a a movie I wouldn't want
00:53:14
a 10-year-old to watch U maybe blood Sports something different but you know they're also little boys that's what
00:53:22
kind of movies they they like yeah no I'm not saying that you not to let young children watch Karate Kid I love the
00:53:30
original Karate Kid the first one I one of my favorite movies and my father who's pretty strict with what I could
00:53:36
watch when I was little um sometimes his judgment was a little cloudy or my understandment understanding of his
00:53:44
judgment was a little cloudy because I recall watching uh Conan the Barbarian when I was in the Destroyer
00:53:52
when I was very little and that's a pretty violent movie very violent um but look at how you turned out so the other
00:53:59
thing here is there's another search on the computer and that is for something to the effect of rat poison or can rat
00:54:09
poison kill a human mm okay also very dark dark as hell not very promising again John's explanation
00:54:20
for this is this search on the computer was again at the request of his three children
00:54:25
that during the course of that same movie somebody is killed by poisoning or rat poison according to the movie that
00:54:33
he's watching with the kids and so they search this to figure out if that can actually happen yeah well my big problem
00:54:41
with this search there buddy is you made chicken you made your boys's favorite meal seems like if you're going to make
00:54:50
your boys's favorite meal or you're going to make a a cake right for for their birthday these are things that are
00:54:58
pretty simple to get them to eat did you make these favorite things for them on purpose so you can put poison in there
00:55:07
and then you took their bodies once once they were poison you took their bodies in the morning when nobody else was up
00:55:14
and you drove out to some field somewhere and you dumped them off that that makes a lot of logical
00:55:21
sense to me well and then on top of that think about the state of the home when it was found when they entered the home
00:55:28
it was it looked like it was destroyed like somebody just in a tornado of Rage just went through their upending
00:55:35
furniture and and tossing things and cutting things and breaking and smashing things is that
00:55:41
a very you know trit juvenile lame attempt at hiding some evidence or at least confusing the scene you know right
00:55:51
or were you losing your [ __ ] for so long that you're busting plates you know when you got mad at them
00:55:58
cuz cuz you couldn't control them mhm cuz you weren't being such a good parent and everything and your life is
00:56:03
crumbling and you're this guy seems so worried about getting back together with somebody that didn't seem to give a [ __ ]
00:56:09
about him it's like you could you could take that time and and refocus on being a better father or refocus that on on
00:56:18
your career or whatever yeah but there's also guys that get into the state guys and and girls will get to the state
00:56:25
where they're so desperate to be with somebody that everything is collapsing around them and and and that's all that
00:56:32
matters mhm so did is every time that you called her that she said that she didn't want to get back together are you
00:56:37
going into some other room and smashing up you know punching your hole through the wall or or smashing some dishes or
00:56:46
whatever right and and are you I mean who knows so yeah and did that that tornado of Rage did that take place
00:56:54
after the the phone call remember Tanya says that he at some point John speaks with her on the phone and says are you
00:57:01
sure there's no chance that we can get back together right you know did that occur immediately after that or a result
00:57:08
of something else and from the outside looking in it appears like you know like you said
00:57:14
Tanya May care for him in on on some level but it appears that she only cares for him as being the father of her three
00:57:24
boys right but [ __ ] can't see that and let me just give you some advice everybody out there if you're with
00:57:29
somebody and they don't know if they want to be with you here's what you do and here's what you do every time 100%
00:57:36
of the time you go okay well I'm going to go over here and work on myself I'm going to focus on myself cuz if they
00:57:46
come back you're going to be a better person anyways and you're going to be better for them and if they don't come
00:57:52
back you're already going to be working on yourself and it just seemed like this guy's
00:57:57
world's collapsing and we've seen I was actually just listening to a show the other day where they're talking about
00:58:03
you know the the suicide rate for men jumps up dramatically after losing a job and
00:58:10
so I would argue that if this guy is suicidal that he's possibly also homicidal yeah yeah I mean here's some
00:58:22
advice for the flip side of that coin if you are with somebody and they love you
00:58:26
completely Just Let Yourself Go 100% just let yourself completely go let your go regarding the things uh as for
00:58:37
talking about like Homer Simpson just let yourself go don't ever listen to him uh regarding the things to kind of back
00:58:46
up law enforcement statement of not feeling like we're going to have a good outcome in the situation there's another
00:58:53
item and this is another cryptic message if you want to call it that but this is
00:58:58
in the form of what John Skelton tells his Pastor Donna Galloway remember he's locked up shortly after the boys go
00:59:07
missing shortly after his failed suicide attempt and when he spoke when Donna Galloway spoke to him his statement
00:59:17
John's statement refers to when it comes to the time frame in question that we're
00:59:21
all wondering about John says there is a blank spot in his brain it was like a big dark
00:59:29
hole now without going too far into that as to what that could mean because with a lot of John's statements
00:59:39
all we're left with saying is Well what could this mean it doesn't straight up it's not it's not straighten to the
00:59:47
point right this is there's a big Blank Spot in my brain there's a big dark hole
00:59:51
what does that mean well it sounds like OJ actually yeah you know in OJ's book where he is confessing to the murders he
00:59:59
States oh well then I blacked out then when I come to there they were dead blood everywhere it's like did he have a
01:00:07
blackout for hours right I mean do we have any evidence of him using drugs or possibly
01:00:15
alcohol uh it's from the information I could find he was a drinker I don't think he was a a big big drinker mhm
01:00:25
um no indication of drug use that I could find but again this is not a promising statement and like you said
01:00:33
you referenced OJ we've we've read several stories where somebody later States for some reason you know I feel
01:00:42
like it did something bad I just don't know what it is I can't recall what it is there's a period of time I don't know
01:00:49
what I was doing I don't know if if I was awake I don't know if I was asleep you know so this is another dark very
01:00:56
dark statement well you'd think they'd be able to test for fluids found at the scene and you would assume that if he
01:01:05
let's say he did try to poison these kids that a lot of the reaction would be throwing up and that we'd at least have
01:01:15
some evidence of that happening at the house I mean yes you could clean that up but it didn't look like he cleaned up
01:01:21
much in that house right so there must not be any evidence of that and they did I mean they've searched
01:01:28
that place from top to bottom well and what's also it's a small town so they probably know all his whereabouts
01:01:36
because of the cell phone pings mhm and they probably know everything he probably purchased so I'd be interested
01:01:45
to know if he even purchased poison or it's a good again it's a logical answer you're you're um watching a movie
01:01:57
with your kids they ask you a question hey can you can you twist somebody's neck and and kill them right uh no you
01:02:04
can't or yes you can um then you go oh we saw this thing on the movie can you kill somebody with rat poison it might
01:02:10
not not even be in the movie mhm it could I mean this is the kind of questions that kids come up with I mean
01:02:18
any time I pick up my nephew and it's like it's a 10-minute Drive I think he asked me 20 questions that are
01:02:23
impossible to answer you know so it's it's so weird because it's a logical answer but on the flip side it's a
01:02:35
logical explanation what what could have happened to these poor boys exactly exactly yeah well you referenced that
01:02:44
this is a small town just to give those of you out there that are not familiar with this cuz I wasn't super familiar
01:02:50
with this area either well with this town of Moren M I've been to Michigan I go to Michigan
01:02:57
twice a year great state best place to go in summertime is Michigan in my opinion but morenzi is like a town of
01:03:05
like 2,000 people it's a town that's like two square m you know two miles by two miles by you know it's a two square
01:03:14
mile town right tiny little town everybody's got to know everybody's business and like you said had he
01:03:20
purchased anything that would go along with those searches on his computer with what their suspicions were if they would
01:03:25
have found any signs of vomiting or certain fluids inside that home be it blood or anything like that
01:03:35
he probably would be facing murder charges or something to that effect right because they already got this guy
01:03:41
locked up and then the other thing regarding the cell phone movements on that day in question that early morning
01:03:48
Friday that that you have pointed out that I have pointed out is so suspicious John has an answer for everything John
01:03:57
says regarding his cell phone going to Holiday City early Friday November 26th well that's easily explained because
01:04:04
someone I know a friend of mine borrowed my vehicle I forgot that my cell phone was in the vehicle who was your friend
01:04:13
who borrowed your vehicle can we talk to them and then John says I can't tell you
01:04:19
who that is [Music] we're just getting started with this case so tune in tomorrow we'll see you
01:04:34
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